A Novel Wireless Sensor Network Frame for Urban Transportation

The rapid progress in the research and development of electronics, sensing, signal processing, and communication networks has significantly advanced the state of applications of intelligent transportation systems (ITSs). However, efficient and low-cost methods for gathering information in large-scale roads are lacking. Consequently, wireless sensor network (WSN) technologies that are low cost, low power, and self-configuring are a key function in ITS. The potential application scenarios and design requirements of WSN for urban transportation (WSN-UT) are proposed in this work. A customized network topology is designed to meet the special requirements, and WSN-UT is specifically tailored for UT applications. WSN-UT enables users to obtain traffic and road information directly from the local WSN within its wireless scope instead of the remote ITS data center. WSN-UT can be configured according to different scenario requirements. A three-level subsystem and a configuration and service subsystem constitute the WSN-UT network frame, and the service/interface and protocol algorithms for every subsystem level are designed for WSN-UT.